1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and methods for the design and economic analysis of new durable goods based on knowledge of the durable good of interest, the plastics materials and processes to be used, and cost, market, and market share information.
More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus, systems and methods for computer-aided design of new durable good from knowledge of the durable good of interest, the durable good's shape and size, using a shape selection protocol, the materials and/or processes for a particular durable goods application, and information related to determining the economics thereof. In even another particular, the present invention relates to a computer software system for the selection of materials and/or processes for a particular durable goods application, and for determining the economics thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The identification of business opportunities and the selection of the appropriate materials and fabrication processes for a "durable goods" application require knowledge which spans various domains of expertise. Business opportunity identification requires understanding of multiple industries, various market conditions, general business environment, and technical dimensions of various applications.
Selection of suitable materials and fabrication processes involve knowledge about strengths and weaknesses of fabrication processes, materials properties, mechanical design, and the shape and size of the durable good to interest. Selection of a suitable durable goods using a selected material, manufactured by a suitable fabrication processes also requires an economic analysis to determine whether the newly developed durable good has the necessary economics to make a viable new product for the markets place.
A person possessing the knowledge and skill to accurately and quickly identify business opportunities and select the appropriate materials and fabrication processes for a "durable goods" application would indeed be an expert. While such a person may exist, it is desirable to provide an apparatus incorporating a memory, a central processing unit, a display device and an user interface incorporating a computer based intelligent system to accurately and quickly identify business opportunities and select the appropriate materials and fabrication processes for a "durable goods" application.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,377, issued Dec. 7, 1971 to Markley, discloses a matrix generator for use in solving feed formulation problems. As disclosed, a matrix is developed in a matrix register, which is a logic array of component storage locations or registers for holding an organization of data relating to nutrients and ingredients. The specification of nutrients and ingredients for a desired feed is registered as two columns in the matrix register, from which the system operates to complete the entire matrix with information from an ingredient storage means which contains nutrient information on various specific ingredients.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,725, issued Feb. 2, 1971 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,004, issued Dec. 14, 1971, both to Claxton et al., both disclose a special purpose analogue computer designed for optimization of the ingredient levels of a rubber compound. The physical characteristics of a particular rubber compound may be closely approximated by a general empirical model equation expressed in terms of the ingredients. By analysis of raw experimental data relating to the physical characteristics of interest, a different set of influence coefficients for the general equation terms may be determined for each physical characteristic, whereby a number of special model equations are obtained. U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,882, issued Nov. 9, 1993 to Blanco et al., discloses a process a computer driven process for the estimation of physical and chemical properties of a proposed polymeric or copolymeric substance or material. The process for estimating generally involves defining the molecular chemical composition, estimating properties of the molecular chemical composition when 3-d folded, and forming the composition into a polymeric cluster, and the estimating the physical properties of the polymeric cluster.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,954, issued Jun. 13, 1995 to Makishima, discloses a computer-aided glass composition design apparatus and method. The disclosed algorithm includes a memory device having stored therein glass component compound data and glass physical property data, and includes a display device for initially displaying a plurality of glass component compounds from among the glass component data. Using an input device, a glass composition is selected from among the displayed glass components. The glass physical property data is processed to approximate at least one physical property of the selected glass composition. Alternately, the glass physical properties themselves are displayed and values assigned thereto, and the component processed to obtain a glass composition having approximated physical property values in accordance with the selected physical property values.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,564, issued Oct. 31, 1995 to Agrafiotis et al., discloses a system and method of automatically generating chemical compounds with desired properties. The system is a computer based, iterative process for generating chemical entities with defined physical, chemical and/or bioactive properties. During each iteration of the process, (1) a directed diversity chemical library is robotically generated in accordance with robotic synthesis instructions; (2) the compounds in the directed diversity chemical library are analyzed to identify compounds with the desired properties; (3) structure-property data are used to select compounds to be synthesized in the next iteration; and (4) new robotic synthesis instructions are automatically generated to control the synthesis of the directed diversity chemical library for the next iteration.
Jovanovic et al., "ESR--A Large Knowledge-Based System Project of European Generation Industry", Expert Systems With Applications, Vol. 5, pp. 465, 477 (1993), discloses a knowledge-based system with three generic Windows applications that communicate between each other dynamically using dynamic linked library or dynamic data exchange.
However, in spite of these advancements in the prior art, none of these prior art references disclose or suggest a system for the design and economic analysis of new durable goods concepts using a computer based knowledge system that will utilizes selected processes and materials for a durable goods application, its size and shape or design and a economic set of selected economic factors. Thus, these is still a need for a system for the selection of processes and materials for a durable goods application, and that will also provide an economic analysis.